# Portal Deep Dive

**Source:** Pintastic Pinball & Game Room Expo  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2026-03-17  
**Duration:** 55m 45s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kAiQiOlEAQ

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## Analysis

Michael Ocean, co-creative director and software lead at Multimorphic, presents a deep dive into Portal, the 24th game for the P3 modular pinball platform, at the 10th anniversary Pintastic Expo. He discusses the game's design philosophy, development process, mechanical innovations (including the Extended module variant), integration of Portal's iconic elements into pinball gameplay, and the challenge of adapting a puzzle-driven video game into an engaging, replayable pinball experience. The presentation features extensive behind-the-scenes development photos and prototype footage.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Portal is the 24th game on the P3 platform, and the P3 has had more add-in modules than all other modular platform pinball systems in history combined — _Michael Ocean at Pintastic Expo presentation; confirmed by show host Dave referencing Multimorphic's 10-year presentation history_
- [HIGH] The P3 platform uses a mid-playfield trough loaded with 19 balls that enables rapid ball staging and launching from the middle of the playfield — _Michael Ocean describing Portal's technical capabilities and P3 architecture_
- [HIGH] Portal Extended module is a new addition that covers the lower two-thirds of the playfield to bring shots, art, and new mechanisms closer to the player — _Michael Ocean presenting Portal Extended as a new feature for this game_
- [HIGH] Multimorphic was allowed to establish new Portal lore, including custom personality cores and the character Reggie (voiced by Mark Silk), rather than being limited to canon elements — _Michael Ocean describing a key early creative decision about Portal IP usage_
- [HIGH] The game design process involved creating spreadsheets ranking all beloved Portal universe elements and voting on which features had to be physical vs. virtual — _Michael Ocean detailing the collaborative design methodology used for Portal_
- [HIGH] GLaDOS voice work was provided by Ellen McLean for Portal pinball — _Michael Ocean crediting voice talent in his opening creative team overview_
- [HIGH] Playfield layout and shot path design took weeks to develop due to interdependencies between mechanical decisions and player flow — _Michael Ocean responding to audience question about diagram development timeline_
- [HIGH] The Portal game balances hub-style traditional mode-based gameplay (like older Williams games) with puzzle-like test chamber experiences to maintain replayability while delivering Portal's puzzle identity — _Michael Ocean explaining design philosophy for converting puzzle game to pinball_

### Notable Quotes

> "Pintastic is a very special show to me because it was 10 years ago where I started talking to Jerry Sullenberg about actually working on the P3 instead of just homebrew stuff."
> — **Michael Ocean**, Opening
> _Establishes personal connection between creator and venue; underscores Multimorphic's long relationship with community events_

> "There's 23 games on the platform because we have an open framework in which any third party developer can develop games. And so, we have fun strange things."
> — **Michael Ocean**, Mid-presentation
> _Highlights P3's unique ecosystem and openness to third-party developers, differentiating it from traditional pinball manufacturing_

> "The portals are the easy part for us because we have this secret weapon in the P3, which is the mid playfield trough. This game is loaded with 19 balls and we can stage and launch balls from the middle of the play field."
> — **Michael Ocean**, Technical explanation
> _Reveals core technical innovation enabling Portal's unique ball mechanics and rapid shot sequences_

> "We allow people to do things that they wouldn't usually see in pinball, which I think leads us to game 24 for the P3, which is Portal."
> — **Michael Ocean**, Mid-presentation
> _Articulates P3's design philosophy of enabling experimental gameplay impossible on traditional pinball machines_

> "Are we allowed to establish new lore? Can we make our own companion? Can we make a can we make our own personality core? Would that be okay?"
> — **Michael Ocean**, Design process discussion
> _Key creative question about IP usage that had to be resolved early; shows importance of IP flexibility in game conception_

> "How do you make a puzzle game, a game that is notoriously tricky and requires you to stop and think and process the world around you into something that is a pinball machine? You have a live ball. It's very hard to solve puzzles while you have a live ball."
> — **Michael Ocean**, Design philosophy segment
> _Articulates the core tension between Portal's puzzle identity and pinball's real-time action gameplay_

> "Even if you don't start a test chamber, even if you don't start one of our more traditional modes, you can bang around and hub and have a really good time and it would still be a very fine game."
> — **Michael Ocean**, Gameplay philosophy
> _Demonstrates player accessibility strategy—casual and competitive players can both enjoy the game at different engagement levels_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Michael Ocean | person | Co-creative director and software lead for Portal P3 game; regular software developer at Multimorphic; presenter at Pintastic Expo |
| Multimorphic | company | Pinball manufacturer and platform developer; creator of the P3 modular pinball platform; Portal is their 24th game title |
| Portal | game | Pinball adaptation of Portal video game franchise for P3 platform; 24th game on P3; features Extended module variant; developed by Multimorphic |
| P3 Platform | product | Modular pinball platform by Multimorphic supporting swappable game modules and third-party game development; has more add-in modules than any other modular pinball system in history |
| Ian Harrower | person | Co-creative director on Portal; tournament player; third-party P3 developer before joining Multimorphic; created Bloodbank Billiards and Bird Watcher |
| Steven Silver | person | Co-creative director on Portal; long-time Multimorphic team member present on all titles since Lucky Light |
| Brad Albright | person | Artwork designer for Portal; first collaboration with Multimorphic; created comprehensive decoration including inside of scoops and underside of phase plate |
| Rory Cernetta | person | Graphics and animation artist at Multimorphic; long-time team member; worked on Portal |
| TJ Weaver | person | Mechanical designer at Multimorphic; responsible for converting game concepts into physical mechanisms; worked on Portal and previous P3 titles |
| Trey Hilton Jones | person | Mechanical designer at Multimorphic; worked on Portal playfield mechanics |
| Scott Denise | person | Audio/music composer at Multimorphic; worked on Portal soundtrack; also designed Final Resistance game |
| Ellen McLean | person | Voice actor for GLaDOS character in Portal pinball game |
| Mark Silk | person | Voice actor for Reggie (custom personality core character) in Portal pinball game |
| Jerry Sullenberg | person | Multimorphic team member; Michael Ocean met with him 10 years ago at Pintastic to begin formal work on P3 platform; appears in prototype test footage |
| Nick Baldridge | person | Third-party P3 developer; created custom playfield module and drain game with ramp-free classic gameplay |
| Pintastic New England | event | 10th anniversary pinball and game room expo; long-running event where Multimorphic has presented annually; Portal deep dive presentation at this event |
| Weird Owl's Museum of Natural Polarity | game | P3 game; Michael Ocean was co-creative director and software lead; whimsical gameplay featuring spiral shots and hamster wheel |
| Final Resistance | game | P3 game; Michael Ocean was software lead; Scott Denise design; traditional mode-based gameplay with virtual inserts |
| Princess Bride | game | P3 game module; immersive film-based experience; Michael Ocean provided support on light shows and framework elements |
| Portal Extended | product | Extended module variant for Portal pinball; covers lower two-thirds of playfield; brings shots, art, and new mechanisms closer to player; includes repulsion gel tube and hard light bridge mechanics |
| Dave | person | Host/moderator at Pintastic Expo; introduced Michael Ocean presentation; noted Multimorphic's 10-year relationship with show |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Portal game design and development, P3 modular platform capabilities and ecosystem, Converting narrative/puzzle video game IP to pinball mechanics, Mechanical innovation and prototyping process
- **Secondary:** Balancing casual accessibility with competitive depth, IP licensing and creative freedom in pinball adaptations, Third-party P3 developer ecosystem
- **Mentioned:** Multimorphic's long-term market position and product strategy

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0)

### Signals

- **[product_launch]** Portal is officially confirmed as the 24th game on the P3 platform, with both standard and Extended module variants. Extended module represents new capability expansion for the platform. (confidence: high) — Michael Ocean's full presentation including gameplay trailer, mechanical details, and playfield specifications; game is playable at Pintastic venue
- **[design_innovation]** Portal introduces several novel mechanics including: momentum jump (multi-landing zone aerial ball launch), aerial faith plate (vertical ball launch), hard light bridge (timed flipper mechanics), and repulsion gel kickback diversion system. The Extended module adds new playfield real estate with dedicated shots and art. (confidence: high) — Detailed mechanical descriptions and prototype footage shown by Michael Ocean; specific mechanics explained in context of Portal universe elements
- **[design_innovation]** Portal leverages P3's 19-ball mid-playfield trough for rapid ball staging and exchange, enabling quick ball movements between playfield locations that create perception of impossible physics (portal teleportation effect) (confidence: high) — Michael Ocean's technical explanation of how the mid-playfield trough is the 'secret weapon' enabling Portal's core gameplay concept
- **[design_philosophy]** Multimorphic employs a collaborative ranking system (spreadsheets, voting) to balance Portal's core identity (puzzle-solving) with pinball's real-time action. Result: hub plays traditional mode-based (Williams-style), test chambers are puzzle-focused, but both remain action-driven for flow. (confidence: high) — Michael Ocean's explanation of design process and gameplay philosophy; specific discussion of balancing puzzle elements with replayability
- **[licensing_signal]** Multimorphic received approval to establish original Portal universe lore for pinball, including creating new personality core character (Reggie) and companion cube variations, indicating Valve's trust and flexible licensing terms for the pinball adaptation (confidence: high) — Michael Ocean's discussion of the key question 'Are we allowed to establish new lore?' and confirmation that the answer was yes
- **[community_signal]** P3 platform now hosts 24 official games plus active third-party developer community (23 third-party titles mentioned), demonstrating healthy ecosystem supporting both manufacturer and hobbyist creators (confidence: high) — Michael Ocean's statement: '23 games on the platform because we have an open framework in which any third party developer can develop games' plus Nick Baldridge example
- **[content_signal]** Comprehensive behind-the-scenes presentation including design process documentation, prototype footage, mechanical testing, and creative team credits; indicates strong content strategy and willingness to share development methodology with community (confidence: high) — Extended presentation format with extensive prototype photos, video clips, and collaborative credit structure
- **[gameplay_signal]** Portal designed with dual engagement models: casual players can 'bang around the hub' with concurrent objectives and multiball stacking for enjoyment without puzzle-solving; competitive players access deeper test chamber modes with puzzle logic and specific challenge mechanics (confidence: high) — Michael Ocean's explicit design philosophy statement about hub accessibility vs. test chamber depth
- **[manufacturing_signal]** Portal Extended module represents capability expansion for P3 manufacturing and design; complexity increased from standard module with additional mechanics and playfield coverage, suggesting refinement of modular production process (confidence: medium) — Introduction of Extended module as new product variant; TJ Weaver's role in converting concepts to physical mechanisms; discussion of challenging design decisions
- **[personnel_signal]** Portal development involved expanded creative team with new hire Brad Albright (artwork) plus established core: Michael Ocean, Ian Harrower, Steven Silver, and long-time collaborators Scott Denise, TJ Weaver, Rory Cernetta. Structure indicates collaborative, cross-functional approach. (confidence: high) — Comprehensive team credits provided by Michael Ocean at presentation opening
- **[event_signal]** Portal playable at Pintastic Expo (both standard and Extended variants) and at Pinball Tycoon venue; indicates strategic placement for community exposure and testing before wider availability (confidence: high) — Michael Ocean's references to Portal being at 'free play area' and 'Pinball Tycoon's room' at the event

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## Transcript

Welcome everybody to the 10th anniversary Pintastic New Robert Englunds. We've had presentations from Multimorphic going back to our very first show in 2015. And we're lucky that one of the top developers for Multimorphic is resident in this area and is able to come over here pretty easily and give updates. You've seen the progress of the P3. They've had more add-in modules for their platform than all other modular platform pinball systems in all of pinball history and is still going strong. So now we're going to take a really deep dive into the portal with Michael Ocean. [applause]
Thank you Dave. Um yeah, [clears throat] in fact, uh Fantastic is a very special show to me because it was 10 years ago, uh where I started talking to Jerry Sullenberg about actually working on the P3 instead of just homebrew stuff. And we we hung out for a long time at this show.
Sure. Is that is that better?
Okay. I can also I can also yell, but nobody wants that. Um so yes. No, I I I
Do you want me to
and I'll do this and I'll angle it this way? Okay,
I get an upgrade.
Thank you.
Ideally, I would like all of the mics.
You like all of the mice?
Yeah. all screwing people.
That's fine.
Yeah, just jump into now and that would be better. Um, yeah. So, I uh I've been working with Multimorphic for quite some time. Uh, my name is Michael Ocean. I'm a regular software developer for Multimmorphic. I was co-creative director on this game Portal, which many of you hopefully have had a chance to play. Uh I was also on the software team for this game. Uh this game would not exist if not for the work of a lot of people and I'm going to credit all these people because they all also provided slides uh and other assets to help sort of make this show interesting. I'm going to the general sort of presentation here that I have planned for us today is to just sort of briefly show what the game is today and then show you a lot of how the game came to be. sort of a lot of behind the-scenes photos and videos and uh you know all you can see how it came into existence. Uh so there were three of us uh who were creative directors on this game. Ian Ian Harrower who you may know as a tournament player or from his P3 games that he's made as a third party developer before joining Multimorphic uh he made Bloodbank Billiards and a really charming game called Bird Watcher in which it's sort of like Pokemon Snap. It's a very zen-like experience. Anyway, um that game was great. is I'm I'm there, too. And Stephen Silver, who's been with Multimorphic on pretty much every single title. Uh, going back to Lucky Light. Whoops. Excuse me. Um, artwork. This was our first game working with Brad Albbright, who's done a truly tremendous job. I don't think there's a single surface of the game that's undecorated, including inside of scoops. When the phase plate goes up, you can see there's actually artwork underneath for the rare times that that is up as well. Um, [clears throat] so Ian and I worked on software. Ian has been a juggernaut on this game. What what he's brought to the team is amazing. Uh graphics and animation. We have Rory Cernetta who's been with us for a long time as well. And Stephen again uh the mechanical designer TJ Weaver and Trey Jones. Fantastic people. Every mech that you see uh in previous uh previous multimarket games or previous B3 titles, TJ Weaver is turned those into a reality for us. Got Scott Danesi on a on audio. It's great to work with Scott again. Um He's doing a great job. And the voice work in this game, we have Ellen McLain as GLaDOS and then we also have Marc Silk as our own custom personality for Reggie. Uh so I don't know how many famili how many of you are familiar with the P3. So in a sort of range of where you're at. Uh if you're a current owner, maybe that's a thumbs up. Uh and if you were just looking for a place to sit down or you were hoping there would be cake, maybe that's a thumbs down. Uh you know, if you like been following it for a bit, maybe you're up here. It's It's an analog range of thumbs up to thumbs down is what I'm looking at. Uh okay.
Oh, yeah. Okay, perfect. Uh yeah. Well, I've got some bad news about the cake, but um no. All right. Well, thank you very much for coming. At least it's warm in here.
Is it a lot?
Uh it it very well might be. Okay. So, let me briefly sort of give you just a quick overview. I think most people are are familiar with P3. Uh and I'm going to talk about it in context of what I've done most recently for the platform. So, I was a co-creative director and software lead on Weird Owl's Museum of Natural Polarity. Uh, if you've had a chance to play that game, um, thank you. If you haven't had a chance to play that game, I I suggest you seek it out. Uh, what it does very nicely, I think, is that it provides a really whimsical environment in which you can enjoy like a nice kinetic energy from the spiral shot, from the hamster wheel. There's a lot going on. And because it's the P3 platform, uh, this is a game module that if you own a P3, you pull your P3 into service position one, you pop out the module, you pop in the other module, and about 5 minutes you're then playing Weirdowl. Um, honestly, Weird is fantastic for me as a big fan of Weird and also it puts a smile on people's faces when they play it. It's one of those games where you actually see people enjoy the game that they're playing instead of in an intense focus and frustration. Uh, and speaking of, so there's Final Resistance, which was the uh uh the game I worked on prior to this one. Uh, in in in earnest, I was software lead on Final Resistance, which is a Scott Danesi title. Uh, it presents as a traditional pinball game in a lot of ways. So, it has the static inserts on the playfield that are virtual, of course, representing u, you know, like we're used to playing. So, you can just shoot flashing shots and pretty much do just fine. Uh, it's fast, it's fun, it has an amazing Scotty soundtrack, which is really nice and upbeat and sort of compels you to keep playing. And the game is a good balance of mean, but not so mean that when you get far enough into it and you lose, it's just got that just one more game feel, which I think is really important to have some sort of short, intense gameplay experiences. Um, and then Princess Bride where I was I was not development lead on this game, but I did did provide a fair amount of support, light shows and other sort of framework things. Uh, and if people have not played the Princess Bride, there's one back in Kimble Tycoon's area. And it's deeply immersive. If you if you know the film, if you love the film, you're basically watching the movie on the playfield and hearing the call outs and hearing the music and hearing the audio while you shoot these shots on this very beautifully decorated playfield, which again is a module. So, you can swap it out, swap it in. And it gives you this experience that you're playing the movie and you're sort of transformed into this space. And look, these are just the three games that I worked on prior to this uh for Multioric. In reality, there were 23 games on the platform because we have an open framework in which any third party developer can develop games. And so, we have fun strange things. We have some developers who have made some really interesting stuff. Um, Nicholas Baldridge has made his own Playfield module and has his own game drain uh which plays like a a very um it's a no ramps classic game and there are add games for that. There's a lot of variety. We allow people to do things that they wouldn't usually see in pinball, which I think leads us to game 24 for the P3, which is Portal. And so, if you know Portal, you're probably very excited that a Portal pinball machine exists. And if you don't know Portal, you're probably completely, you know, you're just sort of like, okay, this is just another pinball machine, and that's fine. So, in the same analog range of I've never heard of it to I've heard of it but never played it to I've played one or more games to let's have a deep intense argument about whether or not the cake actually is a lie. Um, where are people on portal? Oh, okay. So, I see I see a lot of thumbs up, which is great. Uh, which is awesome. So, then I'm just going to play the trailer because what I'm going to show after we transition from the trailer and some some photos is behind the scenes stuff. And I don't want anyone to think the game is not done because you're going to see some very prototypy stuff. Uh so so I'm just going to play the trailer here and hopefully the volume is is not not too expensive.
Hello again. It's been a long time. I had almost given up hope of ever testing again. But I think we can put our differences behind us for [music] science. Federal regulations require me to warn you that this next test chamber is [music] looking pretty good. This next test applies the principles of momentum to movement through portal.
Hi, I'm Reginald, team building core. You can call me Reggie. [music]
Oh, nice shot. Well done.
You must be very, very proud. I'm building the world's smallest troph. Okay, the momentum jump is ready. Woohoo! Oh, it's party time.
Initiating surprise in 3 2 1.
Oh, that's a [music] good one. Woohoo! Oh, that looks nice. Get ready. Here it comes. It's showtime.
Press the button again.
I'm making a note here. Huge success. [music] This is the hard light bridge. [music] Oh, that was good.
Robot. Well done, Rob.
This next test involves the Aperture Science aerial faith claim.
Wow, you're [music] kind of good at this jackpot. [music] Double jackpot. Triple jackpot.
This next test involves turrets. They're the pale spherical things that are full of bullets. Oh, wait. That's you in 5 seconds.
OH NO. IT'S TURRET MULTIBALL. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Hit those turrets. [music] Super jackpot. Hey, it's Edra Safety Cube. MULTIPLE, [music]
please continue into the next death chamber.
Looks like you climbed to the top of this very tall chamber. Have I mentioned I'm not a fan of heights? Don't worry, you'll do great. Got it. Cool. Lasers. [music] No, no, no. Please, no. I can't look. No, no, no, no, NO. [screaming]
EXCELLENT. The [music] enrichment center reminds you that bold, persistent experimentation is the hallmark of [music] good science. So yeah, that's Portal. Um, [clears throat] I still have a smile on my face every time I watch this video, to be honest. Um, so so why Portal? What is Portal in the in and the sort of video game lore and in and what is this thing that that means so much to so many of us? It's an iconic video game franchise with a really amazing story that's set within like a fully realized universe. There's Portal one, there's Portal 2, which is a much longer game. And we are very hungry for every sort of tangental portal ex experience that exists. So there's Aperture Desk job, and if you know the theme, you want every one of these. There's the lab, which is a VR experience. You want to spend as much time in this in this in this universe as possible. Uh but it's a puzzle game, right? So, players solve puzzles to escape chambers. Uh, I heard someone tell me recently, "Oh, it's a lot like Zelda Breath of the Wild when you're in a when you're in a um I just
a shrine. Yes." And I was like, "Oh, that's funny." I guess would we have shrines if not for portal? Anyway, uh maybe that's overstated, but uh and the thing that makes portals so incredible is you walk into these environments that they change and they're dynamic, right? So, you walk in and there's apologies about the chamber not being set up correctly. And these hydraulic lift arms, lift panels, and reconfigure the chamber as you're in it. Um and these puzzles are physics based, which includes real physics simulation and physically impossible physics, right? things like the actual portals in which fast things go in and fast things come out and slow things go in and slow things come out and huge aerial jumps and all these other tricks. Um and so when we had the chance to work on this um in in our mind this is and now officially the the Aperture Science portable incline Newtonian ballistics accuracy learning laboratory. And so this is this is what you are experiencing. Uh, of course we all know that calling any pinball machine portal is a bit portable is a bit of a joke. They're not exactly portable, but relative to being a a test chamber, it's it's fairly portable. Um, and so these are these are fancy pictures, which I'm going to move through quickly because I want to show you the unfancy pictures. Uh, but to be honest with you, the portals are the easy part for us because we have this secret weapon in the P3, which is the mid playfield trough. This game is loaded with 19 balls and we can stage and launch balls from the middle of the play field. And what that means is that when a ball goes in, we can give you another ball back immediately in a way that is almost too fast. And so when you have certain features active, the ball moves from one place to another so quickly that it's hard to track. And you actually have to watch someone else play to sort of figure it out. And you'll and you get it on a second play or a third play. And I apologize about the lines because I know that you wait in line and you play it once and it take a little bit to sort of track it. Um, but what we're able to do on the P3 because we have the this benefit of having the screen where most most machines have, you know, decorated wood is that we can change what we're showing the player and we can help deliver the experience of Portal which is this dynamic environment that changes as you explore the space and as you try to find your way out of this experience. And so on the left we have the hub which presents using final resistance style static inserts but also these tiles. And these tiles are very accurate to the portal universe in that when a shot moves right we lift ramps and lower ramps. And the lift ramps inserts have to go away. And so the tiles open up and the tiles that have the inserts slide down and new blank tiles cover them. Right? I mean we're able to do this on the screen and it's a really great trick, right? It's it's a really neat trick. But then meanwhile, then you head into test chambers and we can show you a completely different environment like uh the one on the right in which a high energy pellet has to be directed toward the receiver uh on the uh on the bottom right there or sort of the middle of the right of the play field and you have to shoot the shots to get the panels in the right order. Uh this one is most like a puzzle. It could be very uh very intense to try to figure out the first time you played it. Uh we also have these sort of first person or what we call like traveling modes. The one you see on the left in which you have a firsterson camera in the environment sort of represents your view and you move shots to move through the chamber. Uh the one on the right is is one of my absolute favorite chambers that we have, which is this encouragement through discouragement where you shoot the physical spinner shot on the left and it rotates the platform that holds the the redirection cube so that the thermal beam can the discouragement beam can sort of whip around and when it hits your flippers, it disables your flippers briefly, disables no hold. So those sorts of tricks that can really get delivered on the P3, I think are pretty rad. So, Portal standard is the playfield module that I've been showing you photos of. Uh, we have some very sweet features like the companion cube which gets pushed through a portal. So, if you head up to the loft, which is the library of failed tests up in the top left, that's your mini playfield. uh if you you portal a ball up there and you push the cube, you're pushing the cube through a portal, that same companion cube rises up on the right, which enables the physical ball lock. And that's how that faith plate jump lock works. Um there's also [clears throat] a momentum jump. So when you shoot around in the loft and then shoot into the portal, if you build up enough momentum, you can launch the ball and land in one of these sort of three landing zones here. You have the upper landing zone, which is that catwalk. The lower landing zone where you land on that button, and then of course the goo, the acid pit, if you don't have you don't have enough momentum. And then, as if throwing the ball across the air once wasn't enough, we also throw the ball across the air vertically, uh, which is the aerial face plate, which when it's lit is the thing that flies the ball toward the back of the playfield to land on that catwalk, uh, and lock balls behind the cube. So because that apparently wasn't enough and it wasn't, we also for the first time have portal extended. So we have this extension module that goes over the lower twothirds of the play field to bring shots closer to the player, to bring art closer to the player, to bring new mechanisms. Um, because [clears throat] this is something that people have wanted and and I think this game delivers it in a significant way. One of the things that's not obvious when you talk about having this extender is just how it sounds silly to say because it's visual, but how beautiful the art is that it basically brings the art so much closer to you. And so the one that's that's over in the in the free play area or over in uh Pinball Tycoon's room uh is is the extended module which is it has those shots closer. Uh it has this repulsion gel tube on the right and in the hub uh the angle you can't quite see but you shoot the side targets and it causes the repulsion gel to sort of move through a tube and then it becomes loaded for a kickback and diverts the ball into the kickback which is basically like our second story shooter lane uh because we haven't had the ability to divert the ball back and forth. We have this raising ramp on the right hand side. Um, we have this side panel over here, uh, which is sort of the top left which where it says over here where Ratman is left with some notes. Um, and when it's enabled, there's a hard light bridge and you time your flip just right to sort of bring send the ball across the second story. It's awesome. It's really, really cool. It's a lot of fun. There's a physical spinner down there. But, okay, that's fine. That's that's the game today. Um, here's the deal. to sort of help you have a look behind the panels. We had this amazing opportunity to transform an iconic firstperson puzzle game into like with with impossible physics, right? With stuff you really can't necessarily do in real life into a fun pinball machine. And as all fun projects do, this started with meetings and spreadsheets and even more meetings and even more spreadsheets. and you take something very very fun like the portal universe and we build a spreadsheet of everything we love about the portal universe and then we rank it. So everybody adds everybody adds a row and we vote and we argue and we're all collegial and friendly again now but there were moments um where and this happens on every game you know you you sort of you want to you want to argue for the best thing and in almost all the games you want to argue for everything. Now, we also ranked what has to be physical. We need a companion cube. We need a personality core. We need ramps to go up and down. We need physical portals, but we also want virtual portals. We want to be able to send your physical ball to a place on the screen, have it pop up and pop down, and then return to those things. Um, the excursion beam uh is a very hard trick to do in real life. Uh, and the excursion beam looks beautiful when you have the assets. Uh and so we have an excursion beam as well, but that's represented virtually. Um and then we had this question I found in I think our very first meeting. Are we allowed to establish new lore? Can we make our own companion? Can we make a can we make our own personality core? Would that be okay? And at the time the answer was I don't know. I like we need to know that. That's the most important question. And I was like the lab has a million personality cores. It has to be okay. I hope it's okay. And unbelievably we were allowed to establish our own. So how do you make a puzzle game, a game that is notoriously tricky and requires you to stop and think and process the world around you into something that is a pinball machine. You have a live ball. It's very hard to solve puzzles while you have a live ball. It's hard to stop and think
yeah [laughter] I mean we all you know if you own a machine you're used to the puzzle. like if you refurbish old machines, got a bunch of old Williams machines. Uh getting my nextg back in shape was a different kind of puzzle. Um but you know, when you're playing it, I mean, uh you know, you want to you want to find a way to let the player who may have a range of pinball skills have a legitimate portal experience without them having to stop and think because that's, you know, nothing of the flow, right? Uh so the other thing is puzzles hinder replayability, right? Once you know the solution, it sort of limits how you approach the game a second time. And we didn't want that. Uh and so what our our balance was here was that the hub plays like an older Williams game. It's a traditional mode based where the modes are small and you can complete, you know, a ramps objective which is active. You can complete a loop objective which is active. You can hit all targets. You can uh hit use all portals. there all these sort of concurrent uh one second. You can hit all these sort of things concurrently and they stack with multi moles. So our hope was that even if you don't start a test chamber, even if you don't start one of our more traditional modes, you can bang around and hub and have a really good time and it would still be a very fine game. And because you can stack multiballs on top of it and the multiballs stack with each other, you can complete a lot of those objectives. There's really cool scoring thing where you complete an objective but you don't collect the hurry up and then you complete the next objective and do the next objective to extend the hurry up and increase the value of it. Um so that provides that experience with the dynamic nature of portal and then in the test chambers you have a more puzzle-like experience um where we're exploring specific elements like the game does where we have a test chamber mostly dedicated to the discouragement team. We have a test chamber mostly dedicated to the high energy pallet. We have a test chamber dedicated to the longfall momentum jump um to portal navigation. We have some others that we we we can't show you yet. Um but they're on the way that are dedicated to other elements, other things you know and would expect to find in ports. Um I know it's weird, but I'm gonna take a question in the middle of this if that's okay. Question.
Oh,
perfect. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Um, yeah, if you have a question, just interrupt me. That's fine. I would I would rather ask questions as they come uh than than then wait till the end if that's all right. Um, but I'll I'll keep rolling.
Yeah, you're using the question mic, so we'll have to
we'll figure it out.
You repeat it.
I'll repeat the question. Yeah, perfect. Okay. Every game, concept and rules, playfield, presentation, art, music and sound, call outs, light shows, choreography, it all has to get done. And there's no real correct list because almost all these things happen concurrently, right? You need to have the script so that you can get the script to the voice actors. You need to have the rules. You need to know what the rules are before you have the script. There is some sort of happens before relationships uh in this but really and truly we're trying to do m as much of this in parallel as possible. And so every P3 module starts as this blank slate which you see on the right here. Um and this is the mid this is the midplay field um infinity trough trick. Right? So all of those holes are vertical up kicks that we vert vertical up kickers that we have at our disposal to send a ball into play. And so from there we narrow into which ones we actually want to use on this game. Now what makes this game different is that we knew we wanted to do the extension module right out of the gate. We wanted to provide that too. And so in every game we designed shop paths using the entire layout of the [clears throat] playfield. But on this game we said well anything is possible. We should we should put Max as far down as we want and and TJ will find a way to make it work. Which is one of our favorite things to say. Um, I I don't know if it's one of TJ's favorite things for us to say, but it's certainly one of my favorite things to say. Uh, so these uh the drawings on the left, I don't think they come from an artist. Those come from me and other members of the team just drawing things and trying to figure out what things would look like. Uh, the playfield on the right, surprisingly, is fairly accurate [clears throat] to where the game is today. U, no, not really. Well, it's it's close. It's one of the it's one of the closer ones. Um, and you can see even in this diagram, things are different. Captain Ball is on the left. There's a drop target, which historically everyone needs to put in your game just to cost out. Um, there are a lot of other features, too. Uh, the drop target actually didn't work for the flow of the game. So,
how long did it take to just get that
that diagram on the right?
Yeah. Any of them.
Uh,
days or weeks?
Oh, weeks. Weeks.
Weeks. Weeks. Weeks. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because it's hard, right? I mean, every decision you make changes a shop path to something else and someone's going to shoot it, try to figure out what it's like on a on a prototype of sorts. And we but we knew right away, we knew before we did anything else, we knew that we wanted a mechanical face plate that was going to fling the ball toward the back of the thing. And so, you know, this is not a product placement from the the toasty sandwich crackers. Uh, let me make sure that my I'm muted here because I don't know what's exclaimed when I hit play. Um, but this is an initial proof of concept test of tossing balls uh into this box. And you know, this is very that's Jerry's arm. You didn't know Jerry was going to make an appearance in presentation today, but and I think neither did. Um, and so, you know, this wasn't resetting properly. It's not the final version of the mech by any stretch of the imagination. This is pre prefield, but it's really neat to see the ball get flung into that box and go, "Okay, we can probably do this." Now, what do we know about the portal universe? We know that when you hit a face plate, you sort of go flying through the air and you hang a little bit in the middle of the jump sort of surreal. We can't do that in real life. But the other thing that happens is you strike a wall and when you strike a wall, you somehow lose a lot of your momentum and they'll go bouncing backwards. I think the explanation there is that we as as a shell in the game are squishy and so when we hit the wall, we absorb the impact, but the pinball uh is not squishy. And so um there's a mechanism in the back that absorbs absorbs that impact the C. Okay. So this is um this is both a picture of how uh if you're in the diagnostics menu how you actually set uh coil strength for the midplayfield trough where the the bucks are. And also it's a proof of concept of the momentum jump. Uh so this is this is a very detailed playfield. um and just sort of dialing in the strength to sort of get a good get a good arc and get a good shot. And that's not what that mech looks like internally anymore either. But these are just are these even tricks we can do. How consistently can we launch the ball? Is it possible to get this to work as we adjust the strength? Can we get the multiple landing zones that we want? Because that's that's that's our concept for the game. Uh and so here are some prototypes. Uh this is I don't remember which prototype this is. If you've if you've shot the game, uh you'll notice that again the captive ball is on the right and not the left. So these sort of these lanes have switched a bit. Uh I'm sorry, let me jump forward. Uh the angle of the ramps is different. The shots are different. The mini playfields aren't even installed. But I I think I hope it's interesting to see this. the sort of the area where Reggie lives and then when Reggie turns around that turret happens to show up but they're definitely not the same mech you know right that that thing um that thing is not fully well defined like right now there's a nice area for that in in the final version if you have any questions again feel free to feel free to ask more to come so okay so on the B so this is that same prototype from underneath where you can see that we're using quite a lot of the the butt tubes to be able to get balls into play and out of play from a lot of different places. Um, I really do feel like this is one of those like the magicians reve this is this is not even I'm I'm just some small part of this team, this this large team, and I feel like I'm revealing other magicians tricks and showing all of this. Um, but I think when you play it, the the experience of shooting a ball and having it come out somewhere else, it's not always the same ball, you know, not to I shouldn't say that, right? But I mean, this is the this is this is the thing that makes it happen. Um, the mini playfield, the library of failed tests, which was a fun morning afternoon where we're pitching. What should we call this thing? Well, it's up and it's up in the lefthand corner. It can't be a treehouse. It's like a loft. Oh, loft is good. Uh maybe it was Ian who came up with it. I don't know. It was it's a great sort of thing. What's loft gonna stand for? It's a good time. So this is also a prototype as you can see uh in slow motion watching the ball get thrown by the uh the faith plate. And I think we can agree that maybe this first attempt at dampening the the impact is not the most attractive thing to look at. Um, but you know, it sort of controls the ball. Make for the right theme. It could work.
You're building an airport terminal machine. That's my luggage.
Well, that's to keep other people from seeing the luggage, [laughter] right? That's to keep people from scampering up the unloading. Um, but yeah, let's let's let's hit the next one. This is the momentum jump. This is the left to right jump. Um, and you can see sort of dialing in the strength to get the upper landing zone and to try to get I think are there lower landing zone flings in here as well? Are there slow-mo ones? Right. So, you probably don't notice it bend down. Um, I had an image of it and I took it out of the the protective hood that keeps the keeps the ball from smacking the top in case someone has an overadjusted coil. Um, whoops do. Okay. Well, that's why prototypes are prototypes. Uh, okay. Should I? Yeah, let's keep going. So, this is the cube lock, which, you know, you lock the balls behind the cube and the cube goes down and they roll out. Um, and yeah, let's talk about the playfield extension, which is hidden underneath this this beautiful art on the right hand side, but there's a fairly complex mech in there that's responsible for both lifting the ramp and for dealing with the diverter and for providing a kickback, right? This mech is really, it just looks like a repulsion gel tube. But internally, this is where all the mechanical elements are for raising and lowering the ramp. And you can't quite see it from this angle, but the diverter because the right on the right return, you can either go to the inland or it gets to the kickback. And we can store a kickback in there and let people forget about it so that later on it could be used as a portal. So that way you have a nice surprise. But now I've just told you, so maybe I've spoiled the surprise. Great. Uh, okay. earlier prototypes of the playfield extension uh had this sort of nice curve at the bottom which I think looks appealing but in practice ultimately draws your eye to it more and a lot of people in with the flat front fail to notice that there's even an extension there. So when the ball travels across L2 and you use the hard light bridge shot, people don't even notice it and they're very confused about what they've just seen. Um so the curve is nice but it it ultimately wound up being more distracting. Uh, and needless to say, art is important. That metal box on the right hand side doesn't doesn't sell like tubes. Um, okay. Also, also Reggie. Um, and so we knew we wanted to try to pull off having our own um having our own personality core. And uh, early on we had this idea, well, there's lots of small displays. There's probably something we could do here. And but yet we we couldn't we wanted a turret. We wanted a physical turret, but we also wanted to have this core. And so this design lets us have the core on one side and the turret on the other. And this is a very early prototype of trying to get display working on a microcontroller with some code I had not yet optimized. And it I think you would notice this. And it's also not very pretty. That's just Weatley's face, right?
That's just Weatley's face. Yeah, that's just Wheatly uh running at what feels like uh a frame. It's like I think that was running at about 80 milliseconds per frame. So maybe like 10 frames per second or so. Um, and over time, right, we got to a point where, you know, Brad was able to design for us, you know, what Reggie looks like, got performance up, this sculpt became real. Um, we get the screen mounted in, we get the microcontrolling screen mounted this thing, and he's got all these different expressions. Reggie, am I doing a good job with this talk? What do you think? No, I don't think so either. Um, that's fine. Uh, and then on the left, this is a very silly thing, but it was very, it was a very good day when I could send commands to Reggie on the P3 itself and know that things were working okay. Um, you know, it all has to talk. It all has to work. I'm very excited. I took the slide out the day I had flash updates working from the P3. It was like, finally, we can update his firmware on the P3 itself. That doesn't sound like a huge milestone and it doesn't make for a very exciting slide. So, I'm not even clear on why I'm mentioning it now. Moving on. So, um, okay, this is the fun stuff, right? This is Brad's beautiful art in trying to figure out what the game would look like. Lots and lots and lots of sketches. Brad was an amazing has been an amazing artist to work with. He attended almost every single meeting. Lots of meetings where we said, "This is boring. You don't have to stay. We're just talking about software." No, I want to stay. And eventually you're, you know, you talk about software, it turns into talking about rules. And Brad's had a lot of amazing ideas and I think his artistic ability is is unquestionable. Um, you can see here a lot of different variations of side art, a lot of different variations of back panel designs, speaker panel designs, um, front cabinet designs. And where truly he went above and beyond was that he took the entire playfield, the early playfield prototype in CAD and painted every single surface uh in Blender so that we could then come up with we could come up with decorations for everything because he painted the entire environment. And one of the things that that really works in person, and I shouldn't really call attention to it, like there's so many small details that you wouldn't even necessarily see, right? Um, but the the lift, the the grates in the back, which are static, they don't move, right? That's art with shadows such that when you look at it from the front, you really you could be deceived into thinking there are actually posts there. It's a really it's a really convincing effect. Um, and yeah, you just everything, just every single thing. And I'm not kidding when I say underneath the face, underneath the face plate, there is art. Inside the scoop, there is art. And they reflect things very, very nicely. Um, yeah. Uh, and then here's the topper, which Brad designed, uh, which has these fun, uh, laser beams on them, which I know are for tracking. Um, you would hope I would know that, but when you're in turret multiball and the turret is fired and you flash them, which technically isn't right, but it looks really fun and so this multi-dimensional this multi-dimensional uh presentation. Okay, here's the exciting stuff. Rules. We probably spent no a word document. Wow. There's probably I think the I think I had the I remember I had the responsibility of sort of putting all of this together into a document that we sent off to Valve. There was about 60 60page write up that explained all different areas of the playfield explained I mean this image on the right is the shorthand name that we use for every portal entrance or exit. The shorthand name that we use for every ball path entrance or exit. And uh these are colorcoded for whether the portals are in only in out or out only. And this doesn't even include the scoops. We don't bother talk about the scoops cuz we know we have those. Um and so I haven't bothered to do the math to describe how many possible paths and combinations are available. Um but but a lot right and these are dynamically linked in software. Um so with consistent rules, right? because if you could literally link any portal to any other portal, the player would be very confused. So, there are static rules about how the language works. Um, these are mockups of hub mode. Uh, for a long time, we were we were developing with virtual inserts just on top of this image to the left just to get sort of basic mode logic working. And then we fast forward to, you know, the sort of different iterations. Uh, and as the cab is coming together, you know, sort of sort of looking like more like the game in addition to having decorations for what the hub would look like on the on the main screen. Uh, you'll notice it's very final resistancy. If you played Final Resistance, those static inserts stayed. This is something we really wanted. We wanted to continue this game. Uh, here is a very early implementation of Pub where Ian put this together and we were just blown away. If you know Final Resistance, you probably might notice a couple other things are lingering around from from that game as well. Um, but I'll play it again just in case you didn't see it, right? It's the inserts on the right ramp animating away when the right ramp lifts out of the way. Right? So, it has that sort of dynamic and that's not what it looks like today, right? There's just sort of a proof of concept. How badly does our frame rate die when we started doing these 3D tricks? And the answer was not bad. Not not that bad. Uh, it's much better now. This was before a lot of a lot of optimization. Um, and so if you're wondering how does it work when you live in Massachusetts and the company is down in Texas, the answer is a lot of Google Meet uh, and a lot of streaming videos that are like this where what you're seeing here is, uh, the the streaming rig over at Multimorphic. This is the top down view. This is the playfield module view. And this is the back glass running a debug scene um that Ian was instrumental in improving from what we've done in previous games where we're actually able to see what the game logic thinks it's doing. So we can see a history of shot events. We can see the portal assignments in the top left. We can see the possible paths and portal assignments and all these places on the screen. And then we can actually see because right when you're dealing with a whitewood, it could be the case that the software is wrong and the mech is working well. Or it could be the case that the software is right and the mech is binding for some reason. And so being able to see, well, no, the game thought it asked for this path, but we're not getting it. We need to figure out why that ramp is binding. Or okay, the game, you know, the game didn't ask for the right thing. That's why that shot wasn't there. It was you. Uh or okay, we're seeing a lot of spurious activations at the switch. We need to figure out what's going on there. Um and so yeah, it's nice because we primarily want the players focus here. Um so then during development they use that way. Uh these are some test chambers sort of in evolution. This is the first version of the high energy pellet test chamber that Ian had worked out which uh was just dropped on top of the hub mode and is the concept for there are panels and there is a essentially a ball moving and you hit the shots to rotate the panels. Uh and then this was the first iteration of the test chamber. A lot of these were developed in um we had access to the 3D assets from Valve for the portal games. Uh then we also used hammer and their actual tools. Uh and so we had a process by which some things were developed in hammer directly and then exported as videos whereas other things were developed in hammer which is the valve engine to build build testers and [clears throat] lots of things really. Uh and then and then brought them into into our environment and then you can see what it looks like on the right sort of more fully [clears throat] actualized. I'm going to try to speed these last couple slides because I think I'm going too long. Uh and then this is sort of this is what the first test chamber that you what's test chamber number one the big fling. Uh on the left you see it built in the um uh in an official val tool and on the right here it is in hammer and I was wrong and fairly insistent that this should be top down. And here was Ian's video plating me showing me how wrong I was and that it's actually much better if it's first person more like it came in this test chamber. Uh, and so the idea was that as you completed the shots, you would pan up and pan up and pan out. But no, then there's the other video which I didn't show, which looks much better, but because this part has to be first person, you have to fall through the portal and big momentum. And so it's sort of odd to switch that last minute. Um, but yeah, slide. Um, and so I don't know if people have had a chance to play it. people have a chance to play it or people and No. Okay. All right. I'm going to just show some some quick videos just so you can see what it looks like. So, this is what the big fling looks like today. This is Jerry and the um the official live stream which was only like a week ago. Um where you can see he's making these shots and then the camera moves to the next shot and and how easy it is to see um the static inserts in these levels are actually on arms thematically that come out hold the panels that have the inserts on them. Um, good job, Jerry. And I think he drains any minute now. But, uh, the point is this is this is how this mode this is how this test chamber presents. This is test chamber one. If you're playing, um, use the yellow button to reselect your chamber to get back in line. Uh, let's check out. So, this is the very first. Now, this is not the very first, but it's one of the very early versions of the finer of the um, sorry, discouragement beam. thermal dispersion beam chamber. And then what it looks like now is that you shoot this physical spinner on the left and the beam rotates and sweeps through and you know it physically, right? It it it virtually impacts your physical element. So your flippers lose their ability to hold briefly while they're sparking. Your slingshots go dead. Jerry's arm doesn't go in the way every time. That's just in this video. I'm sorry if you were hoping he would do that for you. Um, that was a dumb joke, but I'm feeling rushed for time. So, there it is. That's on me. Unsurprisingly, 60 slides might have been too many. Um, anyway, this is uh this is it takes two, which is a test chamber that's actually a multiball. And so, the idea is you shoot the you shoot the center shot and then you collect a um [snorts] I was going to say wait a storage cube. You collect a companion cube and uh you one of the balls represents a companion cube and the other ball represents you and you shoot a shot to send the companion cube through a portal and then you chase it through. And so at the first you have three shots. You could take any one of those paths and then when you get to the next room you have two paths available. When you get to the last room you only have one path available. So it sort of narrows in. Um, and nothing bad would ever happen to that cube, of course, uh, at the end of the chamber. So, and then here's big plate multiball. Um, and the thing that faith blade multiball has, which is a pretty nice feature, uh, in which you have hurry ups available to you during different times of it where you can lock balls behind the cube and while the balls are held, you get 2x jackpot, 3x jackpot, try to try to collect it and finish it out. So, there's a lot here for tournament players who want to chase scores or just, you know, you want more things to work on. I haven't even talked about how the spinner rules work or how Ratman's Den works, but there's there's there's there's lots to discover uh and a lot to enjoy. Okay, what's left? What are you playing now? You're playing a game that does not have all of its call outs in it. I've got about 3,000 or so call outs from Marc Silk. I've got about 850 total call outs from Alan uh that are I should say call outs. I've got access to the recordings. uh that Ellen did for Portal 2, uh as GLaDOS. There's about 850 of them. Uh and I've got, you know, 3,000 that were custom recorded as Reggie uh by Marc Silk. And those need to get integrated into the game in a way that is both fun and compelling and instructive without being annoying and repetitive. Uh we have much more narrative story to flesh out in in in well, we don't have to flesh it out to in implement into the game. We know exactly what it is. Uh, two more test chambers, Ratman's den, the wizard mode stuff. But hopefully uh hopefully the game presents pretty pretty completely now. Okay, thank you. Sorry. Question.
One uh and don't forget questions.
Of course.
Uh so you have the playfield extender or whatever you're calling it and that's game specific. Uh is there any sense of whether that's a per game design option or you might eventually see well as a common pattern we should have a generic extender. What do you think will happen with the extender? So right now, so the question was about the playfield extender and right now this playfield extender is very much decorated for the portal of the universe, right? It presents as a repulsion gel and it presents as those things. There's no there there there's no thought to being able to use that extension and Lexi Lights would say or heist not not only just because the decoration is different, the shot paths are different, right? So this extension is such that the shot geometry works well with the extension in place. Um, and if you remove it, if you play without the extension, the shot geometry still works. You wouldn't want that same extender on there. So, I think if we were to develop a generic extension, it would have to be for I I'm we haven't talked about it because it would it would have to work for certain for only certain modules that share common shot entrances. Um, and so yeah, I think they need to be separate, but I think you'll see more extensions available in the future if that's the question. working with how much collaboration happened with
uh yeah so the question was how was working with Valve uh scary and intimidating but also super duper awesome they were always nice they always said nice things they gave very critical feedback at times um they wanted to represent the universe as accurately as possible so there were rules there were rules that we had and there were rules that we thought we were not breaking of their rules uh and then they said no don't do that right like panels in their universe are always presented in that white light we're like but pinball. We need color matching so people can figure out what to do. And illuminating around those panels in specific colors was ultimately okay, but it wasn't okay to illuminate those panels. And I thought that was great. That was very fair. Um, but yes, very scary to be on a on a call with Valve uh and having them assess it. Uh, but no, they were great. They offered to have their script writers take a look at the script when we submitted it. And I remember we had a very specific joke in there and they were like, "Oh, no, that's actually that's good. Seems like you guys get the the humor of the universe and we're like that's rad. Like how how could you do better than that than you get that thumbs up. Thank you. Is that an okay answer?
Yeah. They provide a lot of the assets that are in there.
Oh yes. Oh, and they provided we, you know, it's awesome to get an email from anyone that ends in Valve software and when that email has an attachment that is, you know, a huge amount of 3D models, textures, sound assets, music. Yeah. We we had it. It was great. Yeah. I was actually
Yeah. So, we didn't we don't have new recordings from Ellen in the game. Uh, we licensed the right to use all of her recordings for Portal 2. So, right. So, everything that she, you know, everything that she recorded for Portal 2, uh, we have access to, and there's a lot, uh, and then we debated about this a lot, right? And um we wanted Reggie to be your friend who tells you you're doing a good job and tells you what to shoot and never seemed quite right for GLaDOS to be telling you you're doing a good job. Here's what you should shoot. She should tell you that you're a bad person and you should feel bad about yourself. Uh and Reggie needs to be the sort of uplifting character. Um and and Mark has done an amazing job. Um but yeah, thank you.
Uh yes, question. So, how many of you were jump?
Oh, no. That's a that's a great question. So, um I I I would consider myself a Portal super fan. Ian Ian Harrower would consider himself a super fan and I would consider him one as well. Stephen Silver also. So, we were the, you know, three creative directors on the game. We were absolutely super fans and everybody else who was working on the game was at least moderately aware of it. Scott was very excited when we we we found out we had it. Scott Deni and he was excited to take a stab at it and I think he's done something really cool with the music here honestly uh to to sort of make it more uplifting. Um but yeah, no there's a lot of Portal fandom. Uh the nerdom runs strong in our in our group. So
one more question.
Sure.
Uh I'm very new. I'm sorry I've never heard of you. I have heard of some of your machines. So, I'll ask a dumb question. Please forgive me.
No, you're fine.
But the the 3D CAD program that you had displayed there showing the layout of your game. Is that an in-house software or something that you're looking to release to the public so people can kind of begin to build their own designs that might fit well into your module
so that you know it becomes easier for people to do inhouse homes?
Yeah, I understand the question. So the question was, is the 3D modeling stuff that I'm showing uh proprietary or is it an off-the-shelf product? Uh for building the playfield, for designing the playfield, that's a standard CAD program. I don't recall which ones TJ uses. Um for the actual simulation of the game and the integration and everything, uh we do that in Unity built on top of a pretty robust uh framework that we've built inhouse and we actually make available to any third party developer. So they can download that SDK and they can start developing games. Uh there are also all these blueprints are available if people want to make their own modules and there's a lot of documentation on how you can go about doing that and writing software for it. And then of course we also have another layer internally which is sort of our the stuff I've built up over since we final resistance of like things to make it a little bit more streamlined for us to build games which at some point we'll port parts of it back and make them available to everyone. Um
follow up on that. So when you say third party developer, are you talking about only people whose intent is to make a sellable module or would it include homebrew?
Oh, it totally includes homebrew, right? Like so so we have a lot of people who have P3s and they bought them because they just want to make a game and you know they start with like a rethe or something like that. Uh like there's a a cool game that was not on our radar and then just showed up on the discord which is this game uh called Young Martial Artist and the developer just wanted to wanted to develop this game, wanted this game to exist and released it totally for free um just so that anyone who's an owner can go to the go to the store and download it and install it and you know when you think about that right that's a pretty wild thing to do is to sort of enable all these people to make games on this platform and give everyone I love the weird games. I make a weird I, you know, when I'm not working for Multimmorphic, I make weird games and I have a whole bunch of prototypes that aren't fun. Uh, but I just was like, this has to be fun. Nope. Um, I I released a game, but there's a lot of things like, why doesn't a game of blank exist ported to it? It's like, that one's not fun. You can modify it, make it fun, but at least the way I tried it, it wasn't fun. Um, and I have a game called Dungeon Door Defender, which like people either love or just like it's too weird for me, where it's like a tower defense game in pinball, right? Sort of these weird things are a unique possibility on the P3. And again, the nerd can run strong in our in our group. So, I think maybe maybe that's part of, but yeah, open for people to do stuff with. Cool.
Thanks very much.
Thank you.

_(Acquisition: youtube_auto_sub, Enrichment: v4)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: faf84785-47b2-4328-99f3-19055891ce98*